It is said that the last thing fish would discover is water. For us, could this thing be the essence of time?
Time passes by, or does it?
In classical physics time is just a variable that can just as well go backwards as forwards. It is not until the second law of thermodynamics that science provides a direction to time – the direction in which things go wrong! E.g. drop a plate and it will smash – never will a smashed plate magically come to mend itself . The direction of time given by this law is known as the thermodynamic arrow of time . It implies that time flows in the direction in which things become more chaotic, e.g. from whole plates to smashed plates.
But this is just one perspective. It is a perspective based on analysis – one provided by the mind. And it is necessarily the perspective of the mind. The mind is a delay-response system – time is a function of this system. Whereas simple organisms receive stimuli and respond directly to these in a pre-programmed manner (instinctive behaviour), more complex organisms such as man have the ability to “store” stimuli in a brain and respond at a later time.
It is this storage of information that creates this sense of time. Why? Because when the brain stores information it is becoming less chaotic relative to its surroundings . Therefore it perceives the world as becoming more chaotic.
A curious by-product of this result is the key to happiness, already well documented by many. The solutions fall into two broad categories:
1. Instead of storing information, release it. Commonly, people do this just by talking – this does work, but at a cost to the listener who is storing information that they too will need to release. More environmental approaches include prayer or meditation.
2. Store and release in equal measure. A good conversation, a good mechanic fixing a car, a musician striking a perfect note, a carpenter striking a chisel just so, doing anything that you really enjoy – are all examples of the mind storing and releasing in equal measure, or of neither storing nor releasing – sometimes known as a state of flow. In such a state we may experience time as if standing still – we are living entirely in the moment.
